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Wednesday, February 7, 2018

I'm an Official Guest!

Today I have a guest post up on a website called "The YA Literature, Media, and Culture Research Network." I stumbled across them a bit ago, and enjoyed their academic take on YA. They expressed interest in reaching across the aisle, as it were, to more pop culture enthusiasts, so I submitted my take on what is and what should be the canon for YA lit. Check it out and leave me (and them) some love!

13 comments:

I'm going to comment on your article on your own page but if you'd like me to post it on YALMC page I'll do that too. I LOVED your article. I think the world needs to stop missing the forest for the trees. We're so locked into The Crucible, The Scarlet Letter, To Kill a Mockingbird, and oh so much more, that they miss the fact that Aristotle and Dante (I LOVE THAT BOOK), Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, and Ramona Blue are just as important, if not more important for the young adult readers (and non-readers).

Thank you for visiting and commenting! I definitely think that books that are older still have great value, but so do the modern books. Especially, as you say, for the non-readers who need to get excited about reading.

Since the canon is often determined by what is taught in schools and discussed by academics, I'd have to say that the YA canon is likely to end up including The Hunger Games, Harry Potter, Twilight, and John Green--mainly because, when I look at YA panels in academia, they all seem to be about ten years behind the times and that's what they're just discussing now.

I love your list of 21st century canon. When I was in middle school we mostly read older YA books. I remember being assigned Catcher in the Rye, The Giver, The Outsiders, The Black Stallion, and Tuck Everlasting. Those are all great books, but they were all 10+ years old when I read them. They didn’t really reflect the world I lived in. I loved my graduate school because they (mostly) let me choose my own reading list. I read tons of modern YA. If teachers want to inspire a love of reading in their students, then they should probably let the kids read some modern stuff. It’s more relatable and relevant to their lives.

Always a Reader

About Me

My name is Wendy, and I am a lifelong devourer of books. I'm also a middle school reading teacher. I read a bunch of YA (especially contemporaries and fantasy), occasionally finding time for adult mysteries or literary fiction. I live with my husband and two kids in a suburb of Portland, Oregon.